Now that I baseline myself and gotten my distance running back on track I’ve started my Marathon training. But to be honest I really don’t know how to train for the Disney Dopey run in January. I suppose if it was only a Marathon I might have an idea of what to do; but running a 5K, 10K, Half and Full Marathon one each day ? I just don’t know what kind of training I should be doing. The schedule I have goes like this;

You get the idea; I might adjust it as I go depending on how my body reacts.. Is this the right training plan? I’ve no clue.

I was originally going to start my long run last Friday but out family Dodge Grand Caravan decided that it needed a new radiator on my way to work so when I got home after work I spent the rest of the evening disassembling and part of Saturday installing a new radiator and reassembling the Dodge Grand Caravan so it could run (not me) – I’ll have to tell you that it’s the best way to spend your Father’s day weekend —-NOT—-

18 Responses to My Van Ran; Not Me – or – Marathon Training

When I was looking into running a marathon/day I was told to train back to back with some of the longer runs. So say when you get to your planned 20 miles- do 20 miles one day and the next 15. That will train your body to run on tired legs.
Hope this helps

How do you know if you are starting too early? I was reading the Disney Training page and their training schedule starts July using Jeff Galloway’s training routine that really didn’t seem like much of a routine – Right now I know my legs can’t handle back to back long runs; another reason this run scares me. Thank you for the advice! all of you running are great!!!! Don’t know where I would be without the support of our blogging community.

Sorry for the delay, crazy week 🙂
I’m planning on doing a marathon end of November and my training just starts now, with little runs-3milers and building up slowly. The average training plan is 16/18 weeks. You can start now but not on a proper plan, make your own-put the date of today and the date of your run and work backwards. Make sure you incorporate hills and speed/interval sessions and cross training. The advantage of starting slightly earlier is that you have that extra time if one week doesn’t quite go to plan or you get injured mid training, you can still get back on the horse in time for your race.
Hope this makes sense!
Let me know if I can help with anything else!

I am not remotely qualified to tell you the right way to train, but I can share my experiences at least, As you know I am injury prone but I have learned a few lessons over the years to manage that and keep myself on the road.

1.) The first is not to try and do too much too quickly. I inevitably start off with good intentions before quickly upping mileage, pace, strength workouts and everything else all at once, whilst also trying to lose weight just for good measure. a recipe for injury and illness.

With the nature of the race in mind, and the assumption you just want to finish all the events In my opinion you should take pace out of your training altogether and just focus on getting miles on your legs and doing this is a very steady and incremental manner. You have a significant amount of time before your big day (s) so there really is no rush. You can only get ‘so’ ready.

If you could add 10 miles a month to your current routine you would have significant weekly mileage by the time January comes around. Split that between your longer runs and they will also increase gently as the months creep on.

2.) Don’t become obsessed with whatever plan you settle on, a missed run is not the end of the world and you do not go back to zero. You just take a break and go onto the next run regardless. Equally if you planned 5 miles and did 4, no panic, add one on later in the week.

There is no point making your running into a soulless, grind. You are doing this because you love it and the good news is, if you can just get the training right you will achieve something that will live in your memory until the day you die, which fingers crossed wont even be the same day! ;-P

Thank you for the advice! My regular schedule (before going to the Philippines) was 6 to 8 mile runs every other day, took me a bit to get back to those numbers but I found going to 10 miles wasn’t to bad; other then my wife ringing me asking where I was because its been dark an hour LOL. I’ll keep at 10 for the long runs for the next two weeks and see how it goes and then push up the distance. For the speed I’m just worried about staying ahead of the pacer; if he passes you they bump you from the run.
Here is the Pacing requirements:

•16 minute per mile pace for all athletes in the Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K.
•Runners unable to maintain the pace may be picked up at any point along the course and transported to the finish line.
•A training pace of 15-minute per mile pace is recommended.
•Pace Cyclists will be on the course indicating when runners are behind pace by waving light wands at each mile markers according to the official pace time. If you reach a mile marker with a light wand waving, please note you are behind the required 16-minute per mile pace and can be picked up at any time and transported to the course pick up tent.

I noticed that my 10 mile pace right now just doing an easy run is 11:34/mile average. You got the I just want to finish part right.. that’s just what I want to do; at 4 races in 4 days I’ll not be thinking about speed at all even on the 5K.

The website says “When you run Disney, every mile is magic!” I hope so because I’ll need it.

I don’t see you having a problem staying ahead of the sweeper. Your pace is going to get you home comfortably ahead of that.

Again I am no expert, but perhaps just get a month or two (ideally) under your belt where you consistently hit 18-25 miles a week, with at least a 8-10 mile long run in there somewhere – Whatever suits your schedule and mood, don’t be too rigid with it.

Then make this your baseline for doing a more structured plan Sept-Dec, this would leave you with plenty of time to train but you wont be starting from scratch and can make an informed decision about how many miles to increase a week and what pace to aim for.

You can definitely do this and there is no pressure other than the pressure you put on yourself. You don’t ever HAVE to run. If you are not doing it with a smile and your camera in your hand, the rest of us are missing out!

The pressure thing with me is one of my issues. at times I find myself getting aggravated when I don’t hit a pace mark I set for myself or when I get passed by allot of people during a run; I’m not talking a race, just running on the street. I continually have to remind myself why I’m running in the first place to recenter my mind. The hard part for me is stopping when I should; I tend to force myself to “Run though the pain” and then pay for it later. BTW: Your foam roller technique has been a life saver in allot of those instances.

Hey Bill! I agree with everyone here who says not to rush into anything. Though I too am wholly unqualified to be doling out advice!

Since you have about 7 months ahead of you I would break down those 7 months into 3 or 4 blocks. The first one would be to gradually build your base through gradual addition of mileage. The second block would be to add an extra day of running to each week. Nothing huge. But enough to let your body get used to running a little bit more frequently. Maybe another 5-8 km’s a week with this additional day. Starting with 5 and then building to 8 km’s. The 3rd block would see you building to running back-to-back long runs. This would be where maybe as 26.2 (sorry I forgot your name 😔) suggests getting in 18-25 miles and another 8-10 miles in each wee. I would suggest doing the shorter of these first and then the longer on the following day in order to mimic Disney. As 26.2 suggests, you likely won’t be swept as the minimum pace is really only a slightly brisk walk. So don’t be afraid to use walk breaks in your training 😃. And finally the 4th block would have you tapering for the races.

Rod, Perfect! I was thinking something along those lines exactly! Mines was a bit more aggressive though, yours sound much safer in that I would minimize the risk of injury only whats “tapering for the races” mean?

Tapering is reducing your training mileage in the weeks leading up to the races. You’ll read lots of different ideas as to how long you should taper (2 – 3 weeks is most common) and how much you should cut your mileage back each week in the taper phase.

I’d say you should also work out a recovery strategy that will help get your legs back in shape for the next day’s beating.
Find a routine of stretching and rolling that helps you get back up on it.
To help with the miles and the distance aspect, perhaps consider split days where you run in the morning and again in the evening. With this you can add mileage and test recovery, without going too far in a single run. Just a thought.

Recovery strategy is something I think about on all of my runs. I’ve yet to Google it and honestly I don’t know whats involved in recovery. High school in the 1970’s running cross country and relays we were never taught any of this stuff I’m learning now. I do like the split run idea I might be to incorporate that on my weekend runs; having get kids up, feed them and take kids to school or daycare before going to work kind of make split runs hard. I really want to thank you for all the help.

What everyone else said! My only other tip is, once you get into the serious part of your training, don’t forget to include some low mileage weeks, about one every month or so, to let your body recover from the hammering. If you keep increasing the load week after week, you run the risk of over training too.

Thanks for the tip; how do you know if you have been over training? I always feel like I don’t train enough. Maybe I’ve not hit that point yet and will know it when I do. Most of my issues are age related; I had to modify the way I run, when I started running again after ALLOT of years I tried to run as I did when I ran cross country in High School. That turned out to be a really bad thing; I was in allot of pain from the pounding my knees were taking and the pressure on my calves. I trained myself to run with less of a leg extension and lift and hitting mid-foot. Although my speed too a hit my knees no longer hurt but my quads work harder as my knees stay bent reducing the pressure on them. Still I’ve been warned by allot of people about over training but I don;t know what that really means LOL i know I don’t make sense even to myself.

One sure way to tell is if your resting heart rate is elevated, but to monitor that you need to know what it usually is in the first place.

Another way to tell is if all your runs start feeling like a drag, and you are perpetually sore or fatigued. You’ll stop hitting your peak speeds during your fast sessions, and your batteries won’t last during the long ones. Most of us will feel like that after a hard session, but usually you’ll be fine in a day or two. However if that feeling lasts longer than (eg a four days to a week after the last hard or long effort) that it might be a sign to back off.

The latter method though is quite unreliable because the symptoms may be subtle and we runners tend to be hard headed, and often when it becomes obvious it might be too late and you get forced to rest either by an injury or illness, which means a step or two backwards.